Equipment used in the construction domain is often hired in order to reduce cost and maintenance overhead. The cost of hire is dependent on the time period involved and does not take into account the actual use equipment has received. This paper presents our initial investigation into how physical objects augmented with sensing and communication technologies can measure use in order to enable n...

In the context of a standard equilibrium matching framework, this paper considers how a duration dependent unemployment insurance (UI) system affects the dynamics of unemployment and wages in an economy subject to stochastic job-destruction shocks. It establishes that re-entitlement e¤ects induced by a …nite duration UI program generate intertemporal transfers from …rms that hire in future boom...

I develop and estimate a model of expertise that weighs the tradeoffs of delegating loan decisions to loan officers. While loan officers can screen soft information, their preferences may distort decisions away from the lender’s objective. The model features rich heterogeneity (e.g. risk aversion, willingness to exert effort, and overconfidence) and addresses possible endogeneity with a natural...

A prominent theory of wage rigidity claims that a social norm against underbidding may prevent wages from falling to market clearing levels. This social norm may therefore cause downwardly rigid wages and involuntary unemployment. Recently performed questionnaire studies have thrown doubt on the conjecture that there is a social norm against underbidding. In this paper we experimentally show th...

This article examines whether a principal prefers to hire a fair or a selfish agent. A fair agent cares to some extent for the well-being of other people and thus he also cares for the principal. Therefore, if the agent performs solitary work, the principal is always better off to hire a fair agent. However, we show that when a third party with conflicting interests is introduced, it may be adv...

In the context of a standard equilibrium matching framework, this paper shows how a duration dependent unemployment insurance (UI) system stabilises unemployment levels over the business cycle. It establishes that reentitlement effects induced by a finite duration UI program generate intertemporal tranfers from firms that hire in future booms to firms that hire in current recessions. These tran...